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[A WEATHERHEAD REGULAR CONFERON] FOR CONFERON, MEETING PLANNING -- BUSINESS BUILDING Conferon, Inc. has been on the Weatherhead 100 list of Northeast Ohio's fastest growing companies more times than any other current winner, showing up 11 times out of a possible 15. What's their formula? BY JIM MARINO
And that's where you'd find Conferon, orchestrating everything, led by Bruce Harris, president and CEO. Harris is a command-ing figure in the hospi-tality industry in the U.S. and Canada for his acknowledged expertise in meeting and confer-ence planning. He's backed by a small, high-ly talented band of fel-low experts and sup-ported by more than 230 professional stalf in six offices in the U.S., with an agreement just signed with an international affiliate. Conferon has grown markedly over the years and is today the world's largest meeting planning consulting firm. Among its many and varied services, Conferon is a source for every-thing from site selection and hotel contract negotiation to registration, housing, and trade show sales and management. It is recognized by the industry as both an innovator and a standard-setter. The foundinq Idea. Conferon was formed as the nation's first full-time meeting planning firm 33 years ago, in 1970, as an answer to a need. "We started as a 'hotel rep' company; we were paid a fee to get people to go to the hotel," Harris says. "Then when we dealt with a our first major corporate client, they complained about the difficulties they were having both understanding and being understood by hotel management when it came to holding their meetings. This looked like an opportunity to help bring order to chaos." It worked. 'Just set somethinq up.' Many years ago, the people who most frequently held meetings were sales vice presidents who'd pass off the meeting arrangements to an assistant, usually unschooled in the particulars of meeting planning, says Harris. "Let's face it. There are just so many details to be considered. How is any one company's meeting planner or any association's director supposed to stay on top of it all?" Harris asks rhetorically. "But we can. We have the experts, the contacts, and the database. Moreover, we're reliable and ethical. "All that may be why we have continued to grow," says Harris. "But even beyond growth, I'm proud that Conferon has helped to change the face of the industry," he says. "We have set so many standards that today, in order to be professionally certified as a meeting planner, you have to read a manual for which we wrote a number of the chapters."Naivete and persistence. Harris says being naïve and persistent were early keys to his company's success.
"I didn't know what couldn't be done," Harris says. 'And that's good." He studied the $100 billion-a-year hospitality industry and learned that normally, anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of hotel rooms are committed to groups, people there to attend meetings. "So there's a pretty good customer base there, wouldn't you say?" Harris says. Then Harris gave a speech in 1978 at Meeting Planners International. His audience liked what he had to say. He even came to the attention of the editors of an industry magazine, who asked Harris to author a regular column for them. For seven years, he did so. The publicity helped Conferon grow even more. But, Harris believes, he also owes his business's success to having attracted the best hospitality industry professionals, such as hotel convention service managers, catering and reservation personnel, meeting planners, and facility and event management specialists, and to a company culture based on ethics. Enliqhteninq the uninformed. If you're a home grown meet-ing planner, you're at a real disadvantage booking a meeting today. "Most people have no idea of the details that need to be addressed, or of how many dollars could be saved by work-ing with a skilled planner," he says. How can they help? Just a few examples:
"Those are some of the logistical elements; however, our key to success is being a consultant to our clients to help them add creativity and increase their meeting's value. We bring order to disorder and save time. Everyone needs that." Value for the dollar isn't one-sided, either, says Harris. The hotels - as well as those holding the meeting - can also benefit from Conferon's help. "Hotels like to deal with us because they know that we know their business," Harris says. "We can analyze their services and prices properly, and we can assure them a profit. At the same time, we can assure those who are holding the meeting that they will get good rates, too," Harris says. The nice part is that both sides pay Conferon. It receives a commission from the hotel for bringing in the business, and a fee from those holding the meeting for arranging the details. Conferon's primary source of revenue comes from commissions for the meetings they book, and they may also receive a fee from clients for providing additional services. Honors and awards. And what has Conferon accomplished recently? A lot. "We have become, on behalf of our clients, the largest sin-gle volume purchaser of guest rooms for meetings in the US'' says Harris. ''That gives us substantial power in the industry, which we use to get the sites and services we need from hotels at rates that will appeal to those holding the meeting. When we get into the contract stage, we can nego-tiate concessions and terminology that are more favorable col-lectively on behalf of all our customers. Conferon books about i.6 million guest rooms per year, valued at over $287 million, making it the single largest group room night customer of the Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, Westion, Wyndham, Radisson, Six Continents Hotels, Disney, and other hotel chains. For many of these chains, Con-feron has won the top production honor for more than five years in a row. Conferon was the Top Producing Global Sales Account for 2001-2002 from Six Continents Hotels; Top Producer of Group Business for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts; and the number one producer of group room nights at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. And the year 2001 marked the fifth consecutive year that Conferon has been recognized by Marriott Hotels as its top producer of group room nights. Conferon has been named one of the industry's 25 most influential organizations in the $100 billion hospitality indus-try by Meeting News Magazine for all seven years of the award. Not to mention another of Conferon's recent honors, its 11th year of making the Weatherhead 100 list over the 15-year history of the awards. Despite being part of an industry dev-astated by the recession and the aftermath of 9/11, Conferon's sales growth has been 110 percent over five years. You might call that the 'suite' smell of success. Meeting adjourned. |
In order to wrap your mind around all that Conferon is, and all that it does, you'd have to, well, call a big meeting.